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Ones to Watch: Kaash Paige, Devon Gilfillian, Kamal, and Joyia

Curated music and Industry analysis | 8.27.20

August 27, 2020

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The focus of Arpeggio is to provide fresh, curated music as well as data & analysis of the music biz. Curated music is important because, in a world dominated by streaming companies, there are independent artists who deserve to be heard. As the music business continues to evolve, I’ll also share the trends and insights along the way.

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I’d be lying if I said I felt like promoting myself during this year, so much love to anyone who’s shared the newsletter through any medium. It’s been heavy watching the same traumatizing events play themselves over and over again on our social media timelines. This song below by Richard Russell & Sampha about sums up how this year has felt insofar.

Today’s newsletter features new music released during times of COVID as well as recent updates from the music industry.

🎧 New Music

Def Jam Recordings’ rising star Kaash Paige released her first full-length album, Teenage Fever. In her music, you can hear loud and clear her message in her name, “Kill All Arrogance Stop Hatred.”

In the past, she’s drawn influence from Erykah Badu, Mac Miller, and Lauryn Hill–yet in this new project, more noticeable is her musical influences from Kid Cudi and SZA. Kaash speaks openly about anxiety and depression, something her Gen Z listeners can relate to.

Some families don’t understand depression. I’m a teenager in this generation, we have depression—my family never understood that. I have to deal with these people and grades, and I felt like my family didn’t understand me. I was just tired of being shut out when trying to explain something. But now, we’ve learned to communicate—even with my friends. It’s been a better situation.

Kaash Paige, via Audiomack

Teenage Fever includes features from sggkobe, 42 Dugg, Isaiah Rashad, and K Camp. In an interview with Rolling Loud, she described how she had to teach herself to keep putting in the work if she wanted her music to go anywhere. A “do the work and the work will do the rest” attitude. Kaash also mentioned she’s crafting her own sound, something she dubs, “the feeling.” Mixing elements from Rock, Pop, R&B, and more, it’s not the type of sound you expect to hear from a newcomer.

“London” fuses Hip-Hop and Rock and is the most-streamed song from the album.

Devon Gilfillian. God Damn. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

The Philadelphia native’s most formative years of listening to his father’s collection included R&B, Hip-Hop, Rock, Blues, and Soul music. Likewise to Kaash Paige, Gilfillian considers the key ingredient of all the golden throwbacks to be the soul, “not simply the genre, but the feeling and the vibe” (Musikfest).

This summer, he released an acoustic version of “The Good Life,” and the fact that the strength of his acoustic guitar and vocals can fill the room tells you everything you need to know. Devon Gilfillian is one to watch.

Devon was recently featured on the most-listened-to news radio program in the country, NPR’s Morning Edition. A new series called NPR’s Morning Edition Song Project asks artists to make a song in the time of COVID.

When asked to create for the series, Gilfillian delivered us “Cracks in the Ceiling” following a difficult conversation with a close friend whose political views differ from his own. Gilfillian wrote the song over a Zoom call with Joseph, a trio of sisters from Portland.

I think it's OK to have different views as long as you can come together and talk to each other with love.

Devon Gilfillian

Kamal. became an instant favorite for me this summer. The young 17-year old singer-songwriter and musician from Northwest London is next up. His latest release from this Spring, “blue,” written and produced by himself, and is a soulful blend of bedroom pop and R&B.

His two-track EP from 2019 is also worth a listen, two missed calls.

Maybe the best introduction to Kamal. is his music video for “homebody,” filmed at his home in London and produced by The Rest, a production team including slowthai, Joy Crookes, and Kojey Radical.

Joyia is a singer-songwriter from Toronto who I’ve had in rotation this week. After attending a Swedish House Mafia concert at 16 years old, Joyia leaned into DJing and EDM production, eventually navigating her sound into R&B/Soul/Jazz.

Check out her song “Come Down,” released exclusively through The Pit LDN as well as her live version recorded from home.

Joyia is signed to ML Artists along with Gatton and KORDELYA. Take a listen to her debut EP, Genesis, linked below!

Throwback Thursday

🗞️ Music Business

Before TikTok sued the U.S. government, they partnered with a startup that may become the destination for virtually streamed concerts. Variety reported the following stats from a tour that was made possible through the TikTok and music startup Wave.

  • Over 2 million unique viewers

  • The hashtag #TheWeekndEXP generated over 1.3 billion video views

  • “The Weeknd Experience” raised $350,000 for Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization that represents those who are “illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons.”

Follow along this Twitter thread to learn about the move away from the DSP-only strategy. Both the thread and podcast are very informative tell-all from one of the top Podcasts

Learn how to use one of the most powerful new tools as an emerging artist.

Chartmetric helps entertainment professionals make smarter and faster music business decisions by providing reliable data, beautiful visuals, in-depth insights, innovative features, and rockstar customer support.

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📚 Good reads on the Recording Industry and Music Biz:

Most artists featured in the newsletter can be found on this playlist.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your comments, questions, thoughts. Connect with me here!

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– Jimmy Seykot